The story of John McCrae

John McCrae wrote the poem 'In Flanders Fields' which inspired the use of the poppy as the symbol of Remembrance.

3 May 2015

Both a soldier and a doctor, John McCrae was born in Canada in 1872 and fought in the Boer War. When Britain declared war on Germany McCrae was appointed as a field-surgeon in the Canadian Artillery.

Canadian John McCrae was in charge of a field hospital during the Second Battle of Ypres, a period that saw some of the most brutal fighting on the Western front.

Lt Alex Helmer, a close friend of McCrae's, was one of the casualties and it was his death that inspired the poem In Flanders Field. Written on 3 May 1915, McCrae submitted the poem to The Spectator, who declined it, and then to Punch, who published it in December 1915.

After Ypres, McCrae rose in the ranks, first joining the medical corps and being promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, then to Colonel, and finally named Consulting Physician to the British Armies in France (the first Canadian to receive the honour).

He died of pneumonia on 28January 1918 and is buried in Wimereux, France.

In flanders' fields

In Flanders' fields the poppies blowBetween the crosses, row on row,That mark our place: and in the skyThe larks, still bravely singing, flyScarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days agoWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,Loved and were loved, and now we lieIn Flanders' fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;To you from failing hands we throwThe torch; be yours to hold it high,If ye break faith with us who dieWe shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders' Fields.